Beginning at about one and one-half years old, many parents begin training a child to use a potty chair to learn adult bathroom behavior and to wean the child off of diapers. Children of such a young age often have a fear of using conventional adult-sized toilets. This fear is probably caused by concerns relating to the size of the opening of the seat on the toilet, concerns relating to the depth of the bowl of a toilet, as well as to concerns relating to the height of the toilet. Adapter rings which fit onto the seat of the toilet to reduce the size of the opening for children are known. However, many children are still afraid of the depth of the hole below the adapter ring, that is, the depth of the bowl of the toilet. Thus, such adapter rings find limited success and limited use.
Thus, most parents utilize a child's potty chair. Such chairs are of a miniature size suitable for a small child. The opening in the center of the chair seat is also sized for a small child. Disposed below the seat of the chair and below the opening is a pan in the form of a small pot with generally cylindrical sides and a generally flat bottom. The depth of the pan is usually in a range of about three to six inches. The pan usually slides in from one of the sides or from the back and is held in place below the seat by slides attached to the underside of the seat.
While such potty chairs are suitable for their intended purpose, unlike conventional adult toilets, potty chairs are not self-cleaning. Thus, after each use, the parent must empty the urine and/or feces from the pan, and then, rinse or clean the pan. Of course, transfer of the urine or feces from the potty chair to a toilet sometimes results in an accidental spill thereof, which necessitates an unpleasant clean-up task.
Other problems also arise from the use of potty chairs. For example, especially with male children, urine may be directed into the gap between the underside of the seat and the top edge of the pan during urination. Depending upon the design of the potty chair, this frequently results in urine escaping from the potty chair onto the floor. This results in frustration for both the parent and the child.
A general object of the present invention is to therefore provide a liner for a potty chair which avoids the problems of spillage and accidental urine loss.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a liner for a potty chair which adhesively attaches to the seat of the potty chair.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a liner for potty chair which has a formed pouch which extends downwardly into the pan of the potty chair.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a liner for a potty chair which has an absorbent material disposed in the pouch for absorbing urine.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide a liner for a potty chair which has a pull string disposed near the periphery of the liner such that the liner may be conveniently closed after use and for disposal.